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ADVANZUS 



BY 

BERT M. BERG 



Copyright 1913 

by 

BERT M. BERG 



ADVANZUS 



BY 

BERT M. BERG 



Copyright 1913 

by 

BERT M. BERG 






DRAWN FROM LIFE OF TO-DAY 

A thrilling drama, full of realities and truth, and 
especially thrilling when enacted upon the stage in the 
right setting. But it must be read and seen enacted on 
the stage — and enacted right — in order to be fully under- 
stood. 

Your friend and well-wisher, 

B. M. B. 



©CU347830 



ADVANZUS 

Advanzus, sometimes called Ad., is an unusually ex- 
perienced and good-hearted man who having been through 
some of life's aqua regia test, comes to a big town in the 
United States. His greatest ambition is to be useful and 
to serve that great Cause. He sees also that it must be 
through giving advice. For that purpose he settles down 
in a cabin by himself and rents a little theater. The cabin 
he labels the "Home of the Mysterious Old Sage" ; to the 
theater he gives the name "Fairy Queen's Palace." 

Soon his customers begin to come. His first customer 
is a young and beautiful damsel; let us call her R. She 
confesses thai she has met the young man that is fit for 
her soul-mate, and after giving some description of him 
she hesitates to continue. So the Sage says: "Yes, you 
perhaps have met him, but he is like many other young 
men — perhaps you have not much money, therefore he has 
not enough faith to dare to win you in an ordinary way. 
And so unconsciously perhaps he invites a life of misery 
for himself and for you. But let me see him and I might 
give him a more sensible view of life." That delights her 
and he invites her to play the role of Fairy Queen in an 
act called "Ad-Spirits and Some Lovers," and he promises 
to see that her soulmate is there to see her at her best at 
the next performance at the place and time appointed. 



As soon as she is gone there comes a young fellow 
who exactly fits the description given by his first customer. 
He is very excited, though he attempts to hide it. After 
saluting each other, the Sage asks him -what good could 
be done for him, whereupon the young man exclaims: 
"To be sure, I don't know. Is it true that you can influ- 
ence almost any one to do his very best?" The Sage re- 
plies, "Possibly " "Now, then," says the young man, "I 
want you to influence a certain girl so that she will accept 
my love" 

The Sage — Well, give me some true description of 
her and we will see, and for one thing, I assure you that 
the best will happen to you. 

Now the one that this young man wants is a rich old 
maid who loves nothing but a dog — a big, black house dog, 
whose hair she even curls to make him look pretty. As 
the old Sage knows the one this young fellow wants, he 
perceives that it would be an outrage for her to get such 
a fellow, who only can be happy by getting a true love. 
So a light goes up for the old Sage and he invites his 
customer to the same performance as he invited his pre- 
ceding one, to play the role of a "Knight from Fairyland," 
promising that the one who loves him will be there, and 
that he will meet her; so he leaves, delighted. 

Soon a couple of sisters of the first customer come, 
and each one of them separately tells that she loves a cer- 
tain fellow, and each asks advice of the Sage, who seems 
confounded, because he understands that it is the same 



young man they describe, as the first one did, but he in- 
vites them to act as maids of honor at the aforementioned 
play. 

Then in the night the old Sage has a vision. He 
sees that the fellow they all want, has some fine cousins — 
sons of a twin sister to that young man's mother. So he 
decides to carry out the divine will, and invites the young 
men to the same performance, to act as "Knights of Fairy- 
land." 

The evening for the performance comes around, and 
the Fairy Queen with her maids of honor are at the ap- 
pointed time and place playing on musical instruments 
beyond the curtain for a short while. Then they all of a 
sudden fall asleep and the curtain goes up. After a few 
seconds a little maiden fairy appears and leads a fairy 
knight in on the stage to view a lovely lady , and the light 
is more abundant around the one for him, and so the fairy 
escorts him to his chair and repeats it with another one. 
Then she arouses the sleeping beauties and they give a 
song and music and some other attractive stunts. 

However, there is one knight missing, and that is the 
one for the Queen, who begins to be worried. Then the 
door is flung open and a man in torn clothes is carried in 
by two old ladies (the twin sisters' spirits), who explain 
that it is one who has been run over by an automobile 
and nearly killed. So the Queen's good-heartedness comes 
to light and she begins to give aid by pulling off some of 
his rags and giving him massage, and as he awakens he 



explains that he was hurt by an automobile in trying to 
save a dog from being run over. 

"Whom did that dog belong to?" asks the Queen. 

"It belonged to that rich Miss Blank." 

"And did you save it?" 

"I certainly did." 

"And what did you get?" 

"Get! Meanwhile I saw that unhurt dog taken up 
by her and petted and patted, but she did not even have 
a word or a glance for me that saved him, at the risk of 
my life." 

"Oh! She is made for dogs and not for human beings, 
or at least she believes so, which her actions show:'' 

"And here I am getting the finest treatment of the 
finest lady I ever saw. A little while ago I wondered 
if I could recover from that terrible experience, but now 
I admit I never felt better in my life before, and as you 
gave me massage, I felt your musical vibrations coming 
from your beautiful heart and bosom, making me feel a 
dozen delightful spirits dance with joy within me. And 
now since the true light has gone up for me I feel that 
I can not be happy without you I love more than all the 
rest" 

And at her feet he pleads her to accept his love. 

TABLEAU. 

Then when the curtain is up again he asks, "IF hat 
are these maids here for, and what are all these people 
for?" and as he is informed soon, he recalls that he also 
6 



was invited, and exclaims: "I thought it was all a joke of 
that old man when he invited me; so if it had not been 
for that accident to-day I would surely have missed one 
of the most important and delightful events of my life" 

Then the first maid of honor announces that refresh- 
ments are ready, and the girl fairy appears again and an- 
nounces that she is hack from a very long journey and 
that she brought back two fine knights whom she would 
like to introduce, which she does, requesting them to pre- 
pare for a visit to the sunken gardens of Fairyland. 

Then as each one meets the other, the old Sage appears 
to admonish them before they go any further, and as he 
looks them over he begins: 

"Beloved children! As an old and experienced man 
that has been through and tried in the crucible aqua regia 
test in real life, I should like to tell you about something 
of importance; so important that it takes the young, the 
middle-aged and the old. Some are thereby exalted to the 
very pinnacles of fame, others thrown down to the bot- 
tomless pit, from where none perhaps returns. Lo, dear 
friends, be careful about four things, if you want to be 
happy. The first and perhaps the most important is Im- 
agination. The second is your words; the third your 
thoughts, and fourth, { your other actions.' And believe 
me, if you succeed in managing them right, you can be 
happy and a success. I wish you good luck! } 

As he attempts to leave them they implore him to stay, 



as he sits down they inquire it he will not entertain 
them by telling some of his experiences, and after some 
persuasion he assents, and begins: 

Well, friends, as you know, my paramount ambition 
is to be useful and to give sendee to that great Ca:> 
Therefore I must tell you some of my most serious ex- 
periences. I teas born in the Northland — I hail from the 
Land of the Midnight Sun — as the seventh child of my 
parents. One stormy night, years ago. it is said. I came, 
when my mother was almost alone. When the Earth was 
".king the clear crystals from above. Then was a 
mother's deliverance. Some years elapsed before my 
recording consciousness awokz. However, as a boy four 
years of age I recollect sacred memories, as I then had a 
younger sister who less than two years of age died aim: 
before her ruddy cheeks had time to pale and how my 
parents put her away in the cellar, befe I knew what had 
::urred to her. but I soon missed her. and I remember 
: w I cried all night till I was shown her condition. And 
I remember how winters up there, with their icy crystals 
covering steep hills — a season for great joy to me and 
others so often. And then how the sun in springtime did 
chase those crystals — making them run for the brooks and 
rivers as they made a pure life-reminding noise at places 
of their joy rides. How earth around my home began 
dress itself in green, dotted with flowers in white and 
blue, which as summer approached increased in tints and 
hue. And how their leaves and blades soon surrounded 

8 



wonderful buds and ears in which lay seeds or their 
equivalent, perhaps unaware of their own possibilities. 
How delightful memories yet remaining within me, from 
summers, autumns and winters, when I enjoyed to see and 
test the result of preceding seasons. I did see a lot of good 
things in that country. However, with the blood of the 
ancient Vikings within, I felt I must out on the stormy 
waves to receive my baptism. 

So I left the Northland, a land of honors, heroes and 
heroines. That year, before the Easter eggs had been 
cracked, I with so many others was out on the North Sea 
among icebergs and a terrific gale and thick darkness 
aboard a cattle-boat destined to take us to England, the 
first part of our journey towards the land of the free and 
the brave, the United States (so called). And I, like many 
others, outlived those trying days, arrived and got work 
from farmers in summer and in winter as a lumber-jack in 
the woods. Later on I worked as mechanic, and I began 
to settle down beside great waters to ply an honorable 
trade. Soon it was whispered in that place, "His ambition 
is to marry an American beauty. Oh! friends, how the 
spirit of selfishness did then and there arouse a hornet's- 
nest full of stingers. I wondered if not the stingers could 
be taken out of them. So I, after having prayed an all 
nighfs prayer and in imagination searched the universe for 
an antidote to that poison whereby my opponents tried to 
separate me from the most beautiful one that ever at- 
tracted me, I was, through a heavenly one, informed that 



it is qualities that count for more than nativity — even in 
the eyes of the Most High, and the fate of Lucifer was 
brought to my mind. And I was not slow to grasp the 
offered tack. So I was encouraged to skin my opponents 
and nail with a tack their skin and stingers to the floor 
in public. 

So on the following Sunday I was in church, at the 
Christian Endeavorers meeting, where each one present 
was encouraged to say something on the subject. The sub- 
ject was the Devil, and when all seemed to have expressed 
what they wanted about the subject, which, aside from 
some Bible verses read, was nothing at all, then I arose 
with a smile on my face, as usual, looked around, and burst 

forth, "To me he has appeared " Then I paused, and 

everybody present turned a queer face towards me, as if to 
say, "What, have you seen the T>evil?' } Then I continued. 
"To me he has appeared in the form of prejudice, not on 
account of merits but on account of a certain place of be- 
ginning; prejudices that would only exonerate himself!' 

And every one of my opponents there was stunned as 
by a lightning from a clear sky ; but my friends looked at 
me delighted, and at that moment I could easily see who 
were my friends and who were my opponents. And some 
one said, "He has reversed the situation in favor of him- 
self '" But who can say I did it in selfishness? And I 
felt the combined strength of the Christian spirit enter my 
body and take my breath away and almost lift me off my 
feet, and a voice went through my very bones, pronouncing, 

10 



"You took the sting out of him," and continued in a com- 
mand, "Bless them all." And by a great effort I cried out, 
"God bless them all." 

Immediately a mysterious word in Sanskrit went out 
of me, and my breath returned (as I wondered if I ever 
was to be allowed to breathe any more). And a delight 
such as I never before experienced surrounded me and 
penetrated me. But soon a voice inquired, "What did 
they do to Him that crushed his head?" (meaning the head 
of the old snake). "You have met a life issue of the 
crushed one, and its sting is lost now. You did not win by 
your own power, but by the grace and powerful spirit of 
God." 

Very soon after I was put in jail, arrested on a war- 
rant sworn out by the constable of that place, saying I was 
a dangerous person to be let loose; and I was beaten and 
poisoned and thrown in the middle one of three dungeons, 
with a robber on each side of me and a murderous sheriff 
carrying the keys. Then I solemnly understood the mean- 
ing of that little voice that had inquired, "What did they 
do to Him who crushed its head?" and pretty soon the 
Presbyterian minister came to me. He always used to ap- 
pear as my friend when in my presence before, but now 
after he had asked me some useless questions he capped his 
visit by telling me, "They are going to hang you." Then 
he left me. To me it appeared pretty much discouraging. 

Soon after, the negro (for the one robber that occu- 
pied the dungeon on my left was a negro, and the one oc- 

11 



cupying the dungeon on my right was a pale white man) 
came into my cell and began to discharge chloroform at 
my nose from a hand-pump. And the more he discharged 
the more I felt the power and spirit of the Most High 
Who passed from death to life immortal, and as some of 
the chloroform escaped into the air it overpowered the 
negro; so he had to run into his cell and lie down, while 
I went out into the hallway of the three dungeons (because 
the negro was in a hurry when he left me, so he did not 
close the door of my cell), and a metallic substance hung 
to my forefinger and sparks quite loud in quick succession 
went in whatever direction I pointed. And I tried to send 
sparks without that metallic substance and succeeded, but 
the sparks were not half as powerful. And I tried the 
power of the sparks on a couple of visitors who were stand- 
ing outside the big iron gate, and they had to turn away, 
after their eyes got full of tears, although a minute before 
they had enjoyed looking at me and my humble position. 

Soon I was put before the sheriff's appointed ones, and 
a judge (who has a crazy son of his own, at his home) was 
going to decide my fate. And after the spirit within me 
declared to them that I thought all men were my brothers 
(for they asked me the question, "Have you got any broth- 
ers^'). Then for a while they (with an antediluvian mon- 
ster-spirit within) did not know whether to send me back 
to my native country, for they did not then know that I 
was an American by choice; but soon they decided that I 
was not humbled enough yet, so they sent me to the asylum. 

12 



Part of the way I was riding in a cab hard pressed up in 
a corner against another one under similar commitment 
whom they had for months soaked with cursings and beat- 
ings, but unlike me he was heavily manacled in iron, and 
also unlike me in many other respects for he never spoke 
a word that I recall, although his features told me, he 
had a will as an iron master; while I was nearly always 
talking and repeating often that I was not afraid and that 
I would like to see all saved, even the ones below, men- 
tioning them with the terrible term that the Bible gives 
them. So that it is possible that the Monster Sheriff who 
had me in charge afterwards said about me that "I was 
swearing terrible on the way down there." 

And as I came inside the great portals to the asylum 
I was brought before a set of so-called human beings 
who were to book me as is customary . They asked me 
some questions, but when I did not answer them as they 
liked, one giant stepped on each side of me and with 
their powerful knit fists they doubled my stiffened body 
up in all directions. Sometimes they hit me simultan- 
eously on opposite sides and I felt as if in the jaws of a 
powerful vise of iron, and although I was singing all the 
while about how glad I was because Jesus loved me, and 
other fairy songs, with the most happy face. As I twisted 
myself away from those infernal monsters, and ran into 
the bathtub, I heard some one exclaim: "That is the only 
one I ever saw who did enjoy to see his own life beaten 
out of him inch by inch. What is the use of killing such 

13 



a person?" Before that time I thought that the boxers 
had a tough lot in the ring, but gracious, they have only 
one opponent and of their same size, and with mittens 
so they can go through without any resort to miracles; 
not so with me. 

After some months there I was through my course 
there appointed to me by the heavenly one, and one noon- 
day the mysterious voice came to me, "Why don f t you get 
away from here? What more have you got to learn 
here?" So I immediately set out for freedom, and the at- 
tendants who saw me running set out on bicycles, motor- 
cycles and automobiles to get me, but they were slain with 
blindness, so they were unable to get me, and I came to 
safety in order to be more useful. 

Through that course there I learned a great deal. 
I met there many unfortunate ones, whose mothers and 
fathers used to tell, "Because I do not tell (my son or my 
daughter) the Secrets of Life, therefore in case you be 
a failure you will be judged mercifully." However, good 
friends, I do admonish you severely to instruct your chil- 
dren in all things pertaining to life; bodily first, and then 
spiritually. So let not your foolish prudence stand in the 
way for your children's success. 

And if I, for myself, do win the favors of the Most 
High and his people's favors (and here he discards the 
old mask, showing still youth is within him), I could 
still obtain that one who was created to be comforted and 
to comfort at my side. And I have also seen the soul- 

14 



mates of her sisters, by a heavenly grace. Among some 
of the secrets I have seen which could be mentioned here 
are a Great Flag — on one side of that flag is the Son of 
Man crucified, and at the foot of that cross lies a big 
snake with crushed head in death f s agony, but his body 
is bulging with young ones, very much alive and working 
for to come out. And at the bottom of that flag on the 
other side is shown a triangle parted in the middle with 
a narrow line. On each side of that line in that triangle 
is the figure of a man and a woman, friendly meeting 
each other. Above are some angels scattering flowers 
upon them. All these pictures are in white, gold and 
black, speckled with astral blue; and receiving a strong 
light from a heavenly pair, above the angels, and as like 
each other as brother and sister, with only heavenly sug- 
gestions in their shining faces and forms, from which 
proceeds a light as from a strong lighthouse by the sea. 

ADVANZUS. 

B. M. B. 



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